“Complexity of counterfeit supply chain has intensified especially with the emergence of Internet-based sales channels and the transnational payment gateways to procure generics and APIs from patent-insecure nations to convert them into counterfeits,” consultancy firm Orkash Services CEO Ashish Sonal said.

More than 50 per cent of the drugs sold through Internet are counterfeits and companies need to include various technology based solutions to fight the fast growth on the market, consulting firm Orkash Services said in a release.

According to industry estimates, counterfeit drug sales are expected to reach 75 billion dollar by 2010, more than 90 per cent increase from 2005.

According to Orkash the various software technologies, such as track back analysis of packet level data and data mining technologies for payment gateway transactions can be used to zero down on the actual identity of the entities involved behind Internet based sales of pharma counterfeits.

A report issued by the European Union last week, EU customs authorities discovered 51 per cent increase in the fake medicines in 2007 and most of these had their origins in India, the United Arab Emirates and Switzerland.

“Pharma firms need to reorient their anti-counterfeiting strategies from present format of convicting the foot soldiers of the crime and seizing counterfeit products,” Sonal said in a conference organized by High Technology Crime Investigation Association (HTCIA) in the US.

Pharma companies need to decipher the entire supply chain of the counterfeit trade and de-complex the organised counterfeit crime, he added.

The pharma counterfeit market is a 50 billion dollar industry globally and significantly 35 per cent of the detected cases of counterfeits originate from India. Indian pharma companies lose around 4-5 per cent of their revenue annually due to drug counterfeiting which has grown in scale over the years.

To curb the sale of counterfeit drugs through Internet-based channels, pharma companies need to adopt a collaborative approach coupled with the implementation of integrated software technologies, he added.

Besides, international trade in pharma counterfeits is a lucrative enterprise and an increasingly sophisticated one.

Many of the operations focused on making illegal drugs are shifting to counterfeiting drugs because of the low penalties and extremely high profits, the release said.

Price differentials of the generic drugs as compared to the drugs in patent-protected nations is anywhere between 25-40 times. For example, Lipitor costs 2-3 dollars in the US, while its Indian version sells for only Rs 5.50. This in turn fuels the counterfeit trade as players resort to repackaging of the generics and selling them in developed markets.